Friday, December 07, 2012

Mormons and Gays: A New Church Website

Yesterday, the Church unveiled a new website: Mormonsandgays.org. It's actually more of a Web page than a site, though, and it's called "Love One Another: A Discussion on Same-Sex Attraction."

I've heard a handful of people talk about how it's a "really good" or "cool" site. That it's about time the Church publish something like this. In my mind, though, the Church has already published a lot of stuff about how we ought to treat others with love, respect, and kindness. Maybe the thing that makes this particular page so exciting to people, though, is that it's an online space where information about mormons and gays can be aggregated. As a bonus, there are lots of videos of regular Church-goin' folks and not just Church leaders.

Here's a question I have running through my mind, though: Why did we even need a Web page that instructs us to love one another? That's really the main message of the whole thing. The Church didn't change its stance on gay marriage or say it's a happy thing to be mormon and gay. Instead, the tone is more like, "Hey, everyone -- be understanding and loving." It never hurts, of course, to remind people of that, but I guess I'm just wondering where those people are who are not understanding and loving. And to the point of needing Church leaders to so explicitly tell them to be?

It's just interesting to me; that's all. I certainly am not perfect, but I guess what I'm saying is that I'm grateful I grew up in a place where people were different than me and believed things so wholly unrelated to my own approach to life. It forced me to see people in a way I might not otherwise have -- in a way that made my reaction to the new website go something like this: "Love one another? Yeah, aaand . . . ?"

Anyway, check it out. See what you think. And then come back here and leave a comment!

2 Comments:

I don't know what it is about it - but I just don't like it.It's like we're always trying to hard to be so obviously accepting. You can be accepting without taking it to this level of "understanding." Cause honestly I don't think anyone understands it.I blame the media. And even if this is from the church, it is online and yet another form of media so there.Fighting fire with fire.

I don't think the church has ever admitted to homosexuality as involuntary behavior like they have done with this website. That's significant, as are the stories and official recognition that the issue deserves special attention.